"And everything is black in black and infernal in infernal and dark in dark!", or The metaphysical literary seafaring of (not only European) dramatic expressionism

Vol.35,No.1(2025)

Krištof Jacek Kozak

https://doi.org/10.5817/OS2025-1-12

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.83764

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Abstract
Especially in Expressionist drama, the motif of the sea/ocean with its idiosyncratic qualities stimulated a lot of interest in dealing with themes close to this artistic movement, such as mystery and sublimity as transcendental dimensions of existence, limitlessness as a metaphor for the human journey to the "stars" from one or finding a new man from the other side. Although for European drama (R. Goering, R. Sorge, S. Wyspiański) the mentioned qualities proved to be much more relevant than, for example, for American drama (E. O'Neill), obvious differences were also evident in the former, since in the German drama, the sea/ocean is much less emphasized, pronounced and independent than, for example, among the southern Slavs (M. Krleža, M. Jarc). Among the latter, the motif of the sea/ocean took on almost independent properties and became a key metaphor for dealing with limitlessness and (metaphysical) breadth of human existence. It is this path that opens up space for the human being to "hunt" for his/her ideals (stars), and on his journey s/he faces all traditional, especially transcendent, opposites.

Keywords:
expressionist drama; sea/ocean; Reinhard Goering; Miroslav Krleža; Miran Jarc

Pages:
139–154
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